Monday, January 19, 2015

The Penthouse by F. Collyer Reed Cover Reveal

A Cover
Reveal for

While having dinner one night in an upscale restaurant, three men
well beyond middle age are entranced by a strikingly beautiful young woman who walks by
on the arm of a man old enough to be her father. Her scent lingers, intoxicating the trio who
stop eating and question how a man of their own age manages to enjoy the pleasures of such an
enticing young thing. They wonder who he is, and who she is. As their plates of food
grow cold, they decide that she’s too classy and wholesome to be anything other than a gold
digger. And they decide they want one of their own.

Between
them they can create the façade of one incredibly wealthy man. With access to a penthouse with
art worth millions and a Rolls Royce, they decide to take turns being Man of the Evening. One
will be a butler/cook. Another the chauffeur. The third a lonely, illusive, incredibly wealthy
gentleman. They place a personal ad seeking a woman who dreams of the man they have created
– and who doesn’t mind if he’s twice her age. A woman who will shop in trendy boutiques and
department stores, and let the chauffeur carry her purchases, and in the evening entertain friends
around the dining table, served by the butler.

Eventually she married a wealthy miner client and they moved to
San Francisco. His stepfather died when he was eight. In less than a decade his mother’s life
had transformed from working at a rural Nevada brothel servicing mine owner-operators and
ranchers to a life in the wealthy Pacific Heights neighborhood of San Francisco where her son
was a reminder of the past as well as a social liability. She sent him to various boarding and
military schools, including a British finishing school, a Christian Holy Roller school (his words),
Catholic Reform, and state reform school.

In Reed’s words, “I’m lucky to have lived through my youth. Any
drug I liked I used in excess, and I liked them all.”

A sober Reed and his artist wife live on a cruising sailboat in the San
Francisco Bay Area with her pit bull and a cat. When not writing, he’s an avid motorcyclist and
shares his passion for bicycles and sailing with his wife.